What did Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz, Penn State players, say about the Hawkeyes' 25-24 win at Kinnick?

IOWA CITY — Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz could admit his first half blunder much more easily than he otherwise would have been able to following his team’s 25-24 win. The longtime Hawkeyes coach admitted, while nearly coming to tears, his team bailed him out after an illogical decision to try a 66-yard field goal just before the break. Penn State blocked it and returned it for a touchdown to take a 14-10 lead. It’s one they would not hold. But, it did give the visitors a needed spark.

The first question would be that was probably, I don’t know, five yards beyond what we said was stretching his zone a little bit,” Ferentz said. “It was bad. It was an emotional decision, so… Two risks on that. Risk of them running the thing back, Auburn-Alabama. The further you get away, the lower the
ball is going to come out. It was a bad decision. We should have just closed out the half and come back and played from there. The biggest part was just the momentum swing. Things were going okay.

“We were doing some good things, feeling a little bit better. Boom, now you drop an anvil right on the team. Yeah, I owned it. First thing I told them (tearing up). Bad decision. You keep playing. Have 30 minutes. You keep playing. They did it, thank goodness. So yeah, it was a good deal. I think they know I’m not trying to lose.”

More: What happened to Penn State on two key fourth down failures? A common trend from the season emerges again

His blunder aside, the head coach was proud of the way his team played en route to victory.

“Just really proud of them,” Ferentz said. “They did it against a team we knew was extremely talented. They came in here ready to go. Played an excellent game as well. Only variable I could see from across this aisle was going to be the quarterback. Thought he did a great job. They were creative how they used their quarterback. Nothing easy about that thing.

“Bottom line is it was a 60-minute game. You expect that certainly in conference play. Play a good team, that’s the way it’s going to be.”

What did the Nittany Lions’ players have to say?

Here is this week’s smattering of Penn State player quotes:

“Not good enough. We lost the game, so got to get better and learn from it. of the ball. Just have to take care of the ball, first, foremost. And then just kind of watch the film and assess tomorrow.”

–PSU QB Ethan Grunkemeyer on his debut as the Lions’ starter.

“He had positive energy the whole entire time, even throughout this week, I had complete faith in him stepping up to the role thathe’s been tossed into. And obviously we came up short. But at the end of the day, I feel like this is a great learning experience, especially like playing in this hostile environment, to carry over for the rest of the season.”

–Penn State OL Anthony Donkoh on Grunkemeyer.

“What happened was, I had put my hand up and like my arm was kind of locked out. It hit me right in the palm. Nothing too serious when I was able to bounce back pretty fast. But for real, I didn’t really feel it. So I got in the locker room. I was hyped. Big, big play for my team.”

–PSU DT Xavier Gilliam on his blocked field goal.

“I mean, anytime you come on the field, and don’t get a win, it’s very disappointing to me. Coach Terry did a great job this week, having us ready. We just got to execute.”

–Penn State safety Zakee Wheatley.